Promoting the General Welfare: Political Economy for a Free Republic

Abstract

This paper explores a political economy of liberty, in contrast to the customary pursuit of a political economy of control. Where a political economy of control theorizes in hierarchical fashion by postulating the state as a singular locus of control, a political economy of liberty theorizes in terms of polycentric processes of interaction. The origin of the American republic reflected a political economy of liberty, and this paper explores some of the cognitive and valuational issues that arise in exploring how political economy might be pursued in the service of liberty.

Keywords: Constitutional Political Economy, Orders vs. Organizations, Emergent Transformation, Samaritan’s Dilemmas and Regime Drift

JEL Classification: D63, D70, H11